I love to cook, and many of my family loves cooking too, but we all have our own little Twists on recipes and that's what I'm here to share with you, My Twists on some great recipes that make them even more tasty.
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Monday, September 14, 2015

Amish Bread Recipes and how to make a Starter

Have you heard of Amish Bread? Well to make it right you have to make what's called a Starter
If you’d like to give the Amish Friendship Bread a try, it’s easy to start yourself.
I am going to teach you how to make it step by step and will be sharing recipes
Enjoy Good Food

For Amish Friendship Bread Starter: Dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup of the warm water in a deep glass container. Stir in remaining warm water, milk, flour and sugar. Beat until smooth.

Cover a large glass jar or bowl with a tight fitting lid works best for this. DO NOT REFRIGERATE! The starter requires 10 days for fermentation as follows:
DAYS 1, 2, 3 and 4:... Stir batter
DAY 5:................ Add 1 cup each milk, flour, sugar and stir
DAYS 6, 7, and 8,9..... Stir batter each day
DAY 10: ............. Add 1 cup each flour, sugar, milk; stir.
Put 1 cup of starter in each of three containers or larger zip lock bags.
Give away to friends and keep one. This will begin their Day 1.

Remember, don’t use a metal bowl, or metal utensils. Don’t stress about the starter. If you mess things up, you can always start a new one. Want to slow things down, feed your starter less frequently. Just don't forget your bag, watch it when it gets really puffed up time to let the air out of the bag and mush!! Need a break, freeze your starter. You’ll know if things go bad if your starter turns orange or pink, or gets a funky smell.

Directions after you have your Starter:
Store your starter in zip lock bagsDo not use any type of Metal Spoon or Bowl Mixing. Do Not Refrigerate.
It is normal for the batter to rise and ferment. Do not taste raw batter and Date Bag.

Day 1: Do Nothing.
Day 2: Mush the bag and let the air out
Day 3: Mush the bag and let the air out
Day 4: Mush the bag and let the air out
Day 5: Mush the bag and let the air out
Day 6: Add to the bag 1 Cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk. Mush the bag and let the air out.
Day 7: Mush the bag and let the air out
Day 8: Mush the bag and let the air out
Day 9: Mush the bag and let the air out
Day 10: Mix and divide starter as follows.

Pour the entire contents of the bag into a non metal bowl.
Add 1 1/2 Cups Flour, 1 1/2 Cups Sugar, and 1 1/2 Cups Milk.
Next measure 1 Cup Batter into 4 gallon size zip lock bags.
Keep one for yourself and give the other 3 to friends along with a copy of the recipe.
You will end up with 5 batches of bread (4 bags and 1 in the bowl)
You can freeze these to use later

You can make a double batch yielding in (6 loaves) then only have 2 starters left, one to give out and one to keep for yourself and start all over again in 10 days.
✫*¨`*✶♪.¸¸.✻ღϠ₡ღ✻ℒℴνℯ….ღ…Cheryl…ღ

Grease two large loaf pans or one 9 x 13 inch pan.
**If giving this bread or selling it use the disposable loaf pans, you get 3 loaf pans for $1.29.

Mix 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon. Dust the greased pans with half the mixture.
Pour batter into the pans and sprinkle the remaining cinnamon mixture on top.
Bake for about 1 hour cool until bread loosens from the pan.

✫*¨`*✶♪.¸¸.✻ღϠ₡ღ✻ℒℴνℯ….ღ…Cheryl…ღ

Be certain to tell the recipient which day the bag is given to them. The day you give them their bag of starter is day one for them. If you keep starter for yourself you will be baking every 10 days.

Only the Amish know how to make the starter so if you give your entire starter away, you will have to wait until someone gives you back a starter.

You can freeze some of the starter bags instead of giving them all away. The day you remove it from the freezer is day one.

✫*¨`*✶♪.¸¸.✻ღϠ₡ღ✻ℒℴνℯ….ღ…Cheryl…ღ
You can make more than just the traditional bread recipe too:
Cinnamon Bread

Cherry Cheese Cake or Strawberry Cheese:I used the basic mix, omitted the cinnamon and used two small boxes of cheese cake pudding instead of the vanilla and I added a small pack of cream cheese and 1/4 cup more milk. You also need a can of Cherry or Strawberry pie filling. After putting the batter into the pans dab teaspoons of cherries on top of them and swirl around with spoon to mix in the cherries. Cook at 325 until dark golden brown.

Cinnamon Struesel: Before I start the Amish bread I get my pans ready and make the streusel 1 stick butter or margarine at room temp.
2/3 C – 1 cup packed brown sugar 2/3 C – 1 cup flour cinnamon - as much as you like
Put the ingredients together. (1 C chopped pecans are optional.) This will make approx. 2 cups. If you like a little more, increase the sugar and flour to 1 cup each.

Make your Amish bread according to directions. Use French Vanilla pudding or Vanilla Pudding. Put approx. 1-1/2 C batter in the bottom of each pan and spread into the corners. (Batter will not be runny - sort of a heavy batter.) Top with 1/2 C streusel, remaining batter and remaining streusel.

Banana Nut Bread:Use the basic mix with 1 cup of walnuts or pecans , 2 large mashed bananas and 1 large box of banana cream pudding instead of vanilla pudding.

This will make approx. 2 cups. If you like a little more, increase the sugar and flour to 1C each. Make your Amish bread according to directions. Use Vanilla or French Vanilla pudding. Put approx. 1-1/2 C batter in the bottom of each pan and spread into the corners.

(Batter will not be runny - sort of a heavy batter.) Add 1 can apple pie filling evenly throughout the each loaf. Top each loaf with remaining batter and the Add streusel topping last, bake as directed.

Yes there are so many variations. If you have a variation not listed leave me a comment and tell me what it is. I love new friendship bread flavors.